Dead Man Walking: Living By Day, Dead By Night - Chapter 32

Crafting Defenses
Zane completely surprised Elena. He did not immediately take her outside to kill Walkers. Instead, he led her to the metals classroom, which was entirely vacant at the moment. The girl looked at him with confusion in her sapphire blue eyes before asking outright what he was planning.

“What’s going on? Why are we in the metals workshop?”

Zane did not immediately respond, and instead handed some steel to Elena. She had previously taken metals with him a year or two prior, and thus he knew that she understood how to operate the machinery.

Elena had always been tomboyish, but had only started growing out her hair in high school, and thus while she had the mentality of a tomboy, practicing martial arts, and taking wood shop and metals class as elective courses. She did not look like one.

But Zane knew Elena well enough to know who she was, and thus, he did not hesitate to put her to work. Thus, once Elena was staring at him intensely for an explanation, Zane pulled out a sheet of paper, which he had drawn up the previous night after getting back from his killing spree.

When Elena looked at it, she was surprised at what she saw. It was a reinforcement bar. Or a barricade that could be used to reinforce the metal doors that permitted entry and exit into the building. After what had happened yesterday, Zane had thought of appropriate measures to prevent Keith from breaking down the doors to their building like he had done the main one.

Elena looked at the blueprints in shock for several seconds before Zane finally spoke to her.

“You think you can handle the brackets?”

Elena took one more look at the blueprints before confirming she could indeed handle the task that Zane had given her. With a slight nod of her pretty little head, she expressed this sentiment.

“Yeah, it’s not a problem. How many will we need?”

Zane thought about it for a second before answering her about the exact amount he intended to build.

“Three sets of two for every entrance in the building. Those desks aren’t going to prevent that thing from breaking down our doors… But three steel barricade bars per door? That should be more than enough…”

Elena had to admit, Zane chose wisely when it came to the building that they made their camp in. With both the metals and wood shop classes in this building, they had quite a few tools to help them survive.

And thus, she nodded her head, with a slight smile, completely forgetting about her previous worries as she put on the safety gear and began to get to work on the brackets that would mount to the wall, and allow a giant steel bar to be placed within them.

As for Zane, he began work on the steel bars, shaping them so that they perfectly fit into the brackets.

—

After nearly thirty minutes had passed, Olivia finally became curious about just what Zane and Elena were up to. She descended the stairway only to find the loud noise coming from the shop room. Where she was quick to spot her companions hard at work on a project.

Why they were spending time in the metals workshop while a literal apocalypse was taking place? She could not say, but she had a desperate urge to prove her worth to Zane, as he made it abundantly clear that she was only alive because thus far she had proved useful to him.

And her biggest fear was being such a burden that Zane abandoned her to her fate. With this in mind, she tapped Zane on the back of his shoulder, who reacted rather violently, swinging a spinning elbow right at the woman’s face, just barely stopping it before he broke her nose.

Zane pulled off his hearing protection, which protected his ears from the loud sounds of metalworking, and was quick to question Olivia about why the hell she would sneak up on him.

“What the hell? Are you trying to get knocked the fuck out? Why would you sneak up on my like that?”

There was an obvious hint of frustration in Zane’s tone, so much so that Olivia struggled to get her thoughts out. Wasting several seconds of Zane’s precious time, which only further angered the man. In the end, she mustered the courage and asked if she could help in any way.

“I was… I was just wondering if I could help the two of you?”

Zane honestly did not have time to waste teaching Olivia how to handle the machinery in the workshop, and instead pointed at Elena, who might be more willing to help.

“Go ask Elena, she needs all the help she can get…”

Olivia’s expression sunk slightly into depression. Zane made it sound like she was being a burden, and that was the last thing she wanted to be. Thus, for whatever reason, she felt like she would rather help Zane than Elena. But she was not yet conscious of this inclination.

Thus, she walked over to Elena with a slightly distressed gait in her step, while Zane got back to work.

Elena was happy for the help, but it became abundantly clear within five minutes that Olivia had no idea what she was doing, and was more trouble teaching than it was worth. Thus, in the end, even Elena told the woman to politely fuck off. As Elena would be more efficient on her own.

With this, Olivia went back upstairs and spent the rest of the time waiting for Zane and Elena to return by going on patrol and making sure that neither the Stalker nor Keith got any ideas about breaking down the doors to the building.

—

After many hours of work in the metals workshop, both the brackets and the barricade bars were finished. They were far from professionally crafted, but they were put together well enough that not only would they function as intended, but would definitely hold up to some abuse.

Thus, Zane and Elena embarked on another journey, of bolting these brackets to the walls, and placing the barricades within them. Ensuring that for the time being, the monstrously large undead who during life was known as Keith could not do to their sanctuary what he did to the main building just the day before.